


Out of the Shadow and Into the Sunlight

by SusanPevensie



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Catharsis, Dean Winchester Lives, Eileen Leahy Deserves Better, F/M, M/M, No Plot/Plotless, Post-Canon Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-13 02:27:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29769276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SusanPevensie/pseuds/SusanPevensie
Summary: A cathartic canon correction. After BuckLeming's 15x19, but Dabb's 15x20 doesn't exist. Mostly Dean and Sam just communicate.
Relationships: Castiel & Eileen Leahy, Castiel/Dean Winchester, Dean Winchester & Sam Winchester, Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18
Collections: Their Love Was Real: a Destiel & Saileen Fanworks Challenge





	Out of the Shadow and Into the Sunlight

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfic. Thank you to my betas, AM & AW for supplying me with comments and corrections. To the readers, please consider donating to the Southern Poverty Law Center if you have the means. https://donate.splcenter.org/ I hope you enjoy this little drabble.

Dean felt uncomfortable. He’d felt discomfort many times in his life. But he couldn’t find the source this time. And that left him feeling unsettled too. As his mind drifted off he glanced in the rearview mirror. Street lamps glowed and revealed what was hidden in the darkness of the backseat.

There it was. The source.

Happiness.

That’s why he was uncomfortable. It was a very rare feeling. He wasn’t used to it. It was always a little off-putting. A life in hunting resulted in a natural wariness to any similar feeling. Upon further unpleasant prodding, Dean found that maybe he could get used to it. More importantly- that he wanted to.

The light yet again revealed the two figures behind him. The smaller one sleeping fitfully with her head tilted to her left and resting on the shoulder of the taller figure. Eileen may look peaceful, he thought, but she’s a firecracker. She and Sam deserve each other. He turned his eyes back to the road and his ears to the Led Zeppelin filtering out of Baby’s radio.

Beside Eileen, slept a very human Castiel. Cas. His head rested on top of Eileen’s and the expression on his face also read as peaceful. It was very different from when Dean had saved him from the Empty. Cas had been in a tormented, infinite nightmare unable to awaken. Jack, their son, hadn’t wanted to interfere, but he gave Sam and Dean the tools and tips for releasing Cas. 

Dean’s eyes darted to the rearview mirror, where, in between the dashes of light he could see a vial that glowed a bluish-white. His eyes were drawn to it and had been during the entirety of their drive home. It was the physical representation of Cas’s humanity. It was the trade-off for getting out of the Empty. He couldn’t do it with his grace left intact. 

According to Cas, it had been fading anyway. That was one of many of his regrets regarding Cas. Not listening to Cas when he needed Dean. His anger clouded out everything else. Even the problems of his best friend. He can imagine how scary that must have been. Dean hadn’t been around the first time it had happened either- another regret. But he vowed - whatever may come- that this time he was not going to leave Cas to experience humanity alone.

Holding a knife to Cas’s throat had turned his stomach, but he only trusted himself to release Cas’s grace into the vial Dean had around his neck. Sam distracted the Empty. Once his grace was gone, he could not be beholden to the Empty anymore. After they got back to Earth, Dean gave Cas the choice. He was adamant that the decision to be human be Cas’s choice because it hadn’t been the previous times.

And Cas, an entity that had seen the creation and extinction of the dinosaurs, observed the birth and death of stars, watched the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, had given Dean a gentle and fond smile as he accepted the warm pulsing vial that contained his grace. He pulled Dean closer to where he was laying in the tall grass. “I have a human soul now,” he had whispered as if he had shared a great secret.

“Even if you didn’t,” Dean had said, “it wouldn’t change the way I feel. And, for the record, I feel the same way you do.” He had to take several shaky breaths. “I um… I love you too,” he forced it out, and still, it came out only as a whisper. How am I allowed to have this? To have you?

Cas had brought him out of his own head by lowering his eyes to catch Dean’s and bring them back up. “How about we work on this ‘talking’ thing together?” And Dean had wrapped Cas in the tightest hug. “That mean we can work on kissing next?” he had asked with his cheesiest grin. Cas had just laughed and taken his right hand.

And here they were, Sam, Eileen, Cas, and him, on their way back from bringing Cas back to the land of the living. Sam shifted in the seat next to him. The bright white light of his phone washed over his face. Dean nudged his brother with his elbow and Sam blinked away from his phone to turn and face him. Dean gestures to the rearview mirror. Sam, of course, immediately started looking for a tail. Dean rolled his eyes.

“Backseat,” he mouthed. Sam turned in his seat and a Dean spotted the exact moment Sam saw Eileen snuggled up with Cas. He always got this ridiculously cute look on his face whenever he saw Eileen.

“Guess they got tired. It’s been a long day. They’ve been throwing ASL back and forth nonstop since we got in the car,” Sam whispered.

Dean turned the radio down even further, “Sammy?”

“Yeah?” Sam diverted his attention away from Eileen and back to Dean.

“I’m kind of afraid to even say this. Like even thinking it will jinx us or something. But. I kinda wanna be more like Bobby, ya know? I wanna still be a hunter, but,” and Dean looked at the rearview mirror pointedly, “I kinda want to…” he trailed off.

“...retire?” Sam supplied. It wasn’t the first time Dean had voiced the thought with Sam, but it was the first time that Dean thought he could have Cas too. He looked up from the road to where Sam’s eyes met his. “I think that’s a great idea.”

Sam took a breath, “Yeah, we can answer phones like Bobby used to. But I’ve also been thinking about what we can do with the Men of Letters. I’m sure Jody’s girls could make use of it, or Charlie and the AU hunters. We could make it like a library for hunters. And I… I kind of want to teach hunters.” He looked at Dean with a shifty kind of look. 

“What?” Dean asked, sensing that there was more to come.

“Well, and I know how much you’re gonna dislike this, but I kind of want to expand my knowledge of witchcraft.” He didn’t look up at Dean. Much as it was well known that Dean disliked all things related to witches, this announcement didn’t come as much of a surprise to him. And he didn’t want to be the one holding his brother back.

“Ya know what? You should. Rowena seemed to think you were something special, and she’s the best witch we’ve ever met.” He turned from the road to Sam.

Sam had the audacity to look surprised. It quickly changed to that fond look the Winchesters reserved for when words were too much. 

“All right, all right, we can’t have that much sap in the car- it’ll gum up the engines.” Sam just rolled his eyes and nudged Dean with his elbow. He knew just as well as a Dean did that Dean was getting better at accepting ‘chick flick moments.’

There was a rustling in the backseat as Cas adjusted himself next to Eileen. His trench coat was spread out above their legs. Dean felt another rush of happiness. He had his brother next to him, his brother’s partner in the backseat. And next to her, his best friend. His… partner? The word was strange, but it felt right.

“Hey, maybe you and Eileen can use the bunker as a home base. If Cas is alright with it, I’d like to travel the world.” And as he said it, Dean realized how true that was. Sam could take care of himself, and besides, Eileen would be by his side. The whole world feels right here- like I could reach out and touch it.

Dean paused for long enough that he could tell Sam didn’t think there was more to come. “Ya know, there was a time when I didn’t think I would live?”

“You mean to this age?” Sam asked.

“That, but also that I would never get to enjoy the wonders of the world. That I was destined to die- to die young and bloody and fighting. That I would be a sacrifice to keep the world spinning. I didn’t think I deserved to live- especially after all the terrible things I’ve done. But I do. And I want to.” He glanced back in the rearview mirror and met Cas’s proud eyes and beaming smile.

“Hello, Dean.”

**Author's Note:**

> *bows* If you read the whole thing I just want to extend my thanks. Constructive criticism would be appreciated.


End file.
